Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Europe Day 10 (Wednesday)

We didn’t wake up early.Oh well.The weather has made it so the Gondola ride is not a possibility.The ride is about a 5 hour experience and WOULD have been awesome but they do not open it if the weather is bad.We got up at 9 or so and went down and had our 9 (a piece) euro breakfast (satisfying-ish though).We checked out of the hotel only to find that the damn hostess last night didn’t return the extra key we gave her to a place where the morning hostess could find it.The morning hostess could not reach the evening hostess so we were screwed out of a 50 euro deposit fee on the key.Hopefully this will be refunded when the chick finds it.Damnit.

We headed onto the highway realizing that we didn’t get any good pictures of the enormous glacier that sits on the mountaintops above our heads.We spent a good amount of time driving around looking for a good vista point and eventually decided upon a driveway in someone’s back yard.Good view though!Driving out of Chamonix was gorgeous though.It’s like driving out of a much larger Yosemite Valley during the spring when everything is very green.Great waterfalls and all!

We finally arrive in Paris.Lots of terrible traffic going the opposite direction but the real fun didn’t begin until we got into the city.As you can expect, driving in this neck of the woods is bloody terrifying.I am of course not the person who is doing the driving but just being in the car is pretty insane.Motorcycles everywhere, traffic everywhere, streets that are not built for cars, no sense of parking, no sense of space, claustrophobics nightmare, and neat buildings.We are staying this night at the Westin in Paris.As I mentioned before, Dipper cashed in some of his rewards points for our first night’s stay in Paris.We get this room for free and its supposed to be 690 Euros a night.That’s about 1000 dollars for an evening here.Fisties.

Really nice here though.Not a big room, but elegant.I am paying 7 euros for 1 hour of Internet to post these blogs and make a few calls but I suppose its worth it J.We are going to go out with Ryan’s sister and her friend tonight as they are staying in Paris as well.Should be good jet lagged fun for them.

Everything in Paris is expensive.EVERYTHING.Internet expensive.Parking is 26 euros for 24 hours.I have yet to experience the food and I would normally write about it in this blog but I don’t think we are going to pay again for internet here unless we decide to be slightly masochistic.Maybe tomorrow at the slightly less baller hotel.